What Can I Put on Bean Plants to Prevent the Deer From Eating Them?

Stinky and Spicy

• It might make the odor of the garden a bit unpleasant, but mixing up a stinky and spicy solution to spray or pour around your plants is one way to keep deer away. They won't like the smell any more than you do -- and they certainly won't like the spice if they attempt to eat the plant despite the odor. Make this deterrent by cracking six raw eggs into a blender and adding four or five hot peppers such as habaneros or scotch bonnets. Blend the mixture to liquefy it, and then pour the mixture into an empty milk jug. Set the jug outside in the sun to warm for a couple of days, and then pour the mixture on and around your bean plants. The smell will be predictably awful and the peppers in the mixture will taste awful should deer approach anyway.

Scare Them Away

• Bloodmeal and human hair makes a scary combination for deer. Cut some cotton fabric into 4-inch squares. Mix together a quarter cup of bloodmeal with a cup of hair clippings and put about a tablespoon of the mixture into the center of each square. Tie up the corners into little bags and use a rubber band or string to attach the bags to the plants or lay them nearby. Deer have an excellent sense of smell, and this odor will warn them to get away quickly.

Get Hairy

• Without going to the trouble of making the bloodmeal and hair baggies, you can use human hair alone to accomplish the same task, but you'll need more of it. Bag up hair from a recent haircut or go to a local salon and ask to sweep up a bagful. You can simply spread the hair all over the planting area to provide a scent that will keep deer away from the beans. Hair is an organic material that will eventually absorb into the soil and will actually make the soil more nitrogen rich.

Soap

• Not only does your deodorant soap keep body odor away, but it will also repel deer. It's probably because of the association of the smell with humans, because we frighten deer. Cut up a bar of deodorant soap into four pieces and place a piece inside a nylon stocking. Tie them to a stake and put them in the ground near your bean plants. The smell will keep deer and other creatures away for 3 feet in every direction.